Pastor Percipia

   To see the full message, scroll to the bottom. ‘Twas the month before Advent and all through the stores  Rang Rudolph and Frosty; Mariah galore.   I cringed when I heard it ‘cause it was too soon,   But they wanted me shopping, so they cranked up the tune.   Then the week before Advent, arose in my mind,   Memories of mystery, wonder undefined.   The earth cold and weary, hearts seeking warm,   The whispers of sunlight drowned out by the storm.  So the week before Advent, all through our house,   We started unpacking: Mary and her spouse,   The baby in manger, the Kings on their rides,   The shepherds from the fields, the sheep at their side.    They'd been biding in cardboard since same time last year,   So we opened the box—because Advent was here.   We unpacked the magic, the power, the glow.   We told us the story we already know....

    To see the full message, scroll to the bottom. Baptism is first an act of faith. S econd, an act of obedience . T hird an act of belonging.   First: we get baptized as an act of faith .   In the vocabulary of the scripture writers, water represents both death and life .   Water is chaos and destruction. Oceans and floods and storms at sea. It's the R ed S ea pour ing back down onto the E gyptian army as they pursued the people of Israel , trying to bring them back into slavery. It's the ocean threatening to sink J onah's ship and J onah asking to be thrown into the water , fully expect ing to di e . Water was a threat to the apostles, several of whom were fishermen .   ... A violent windstorm came up, and the waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was being swamped. But Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on the cushion. So they woke him and said, “ T eacher, don’t you care that we are perishing?” Mark 4:37-38 Even when water is not...